Tales Of The Crypt Presents The Lives Of Those Buried At Little Rock Cemetery

Students prepare for a previous presentation of Tales of the Crypt at Little Rock's historic Mount Holly Cemetery.

Credit Parkview High School

UPDATE: With rain in the forecast Tuesday evening, Tales of the Crypt has been postponed, now scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 16 beginning at 6 p.m.

ORIGINAL STORY:

Parkview High School’s drama department will present its 24th annual Tales of the Crypt at Little Rock's Mount Holly Cemetery on Tuesday. Students will portray notable Arkansas residents who are buried at the historic cemetary.

Tamara Zinck is directing the event in which guests will be guided through the grounds of the cemetary. She says students have been researching and writing scripts since the spring.

"They’ll go downtown to the Butler Center and they will research and try to find the obituaries and the other information that might be out there about the lives of these people."

The students will perform four minute monologues or duet scenes on their characters. Notable figures who the students will perform include Quatie and her husband Cherokee Chief John Ross who traveled through Arkansas on the Trail of Tears, David O. Dodd a young spy during the Civil War, and a new edition this year, First Lt. Calvin Wall Regnier.

Mount Holly Cemetery has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places because of the prominent figures buried there. The cemetery has been active since 1843 with some referring to it as the Westminster Abbey of Arkansas.

The high school has been organizing this service project to benefit the cemetery for over two decades. Actors perform scenes in October and again in the spring to raise money for the upkeep of the grounds.

Mount Holly cemetery is located at Broadway and 10th street in Little Rock. The gates will open at 6 p.m. Admission is free but donations are welcome. For more information visit mounthollycemetery.org or call 501.447.2362.